Premodern Plants

This book gathers essays on premodern plants, considering the position of critical plant studies in relation to medieval studies. Contributions cover topics including the significance of the daisy in the two Prologues to Chaucer's Legend of Good Women ; naming in premodern herbals; gathering prayers; vegetal decay in the prose romance Perceforest ; the futurity of plants as they ripen and then rot; and vegetal life in libertine science and literature from the seventeenth century. Taken together, they provide a thoughtful reflection on premodern plants.

Explores premodern plants as they appear in medieval literature Considers the position of critical plant studies Interrogates a variety of primary sources, from Chaucer to medieval grafting treatises

Auteur

Vin Nardizzi is Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia, Canada.

Contenu

1. Editor's introduction.- 2. 'Farewel my bok': Paying attention to flowers in Chaucer's prologues to The Legend of Good Women.
   • 3. Vegetal continuity and the naming of species.- 4. The sacrificial herb: Gathering prayers in medieval pharmacy.- 5. Written in trees.- 6. Fruit and rot: Vegetal theology in Perceforest .- 7. Before and after plants.- 8. Libertine botany: Vegetal sexualities, vegetal forms.- 9. Centerpieces.- 10. Writing with plants.- 11. Is Dante a cosmopolitan?